


Living through lies

by Rin_chan32



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Future Foundation (Dangan Ronpa), Multi, Past Character Death, Post Danganronpa V3 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-18 03:20:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12379833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rin_chan32/pseuds/Rin_chan32
Summary: What if everything you thought about something was actually a fake?The survivors of the 53rd killing game are introduced to the society with an unpleasant surprise about the killing game and everyone who participated.Contains spoilers for V3





	1. Chapter 1

Rocks were pushed aside and Shuichi Saihara emerged from underneath the rubble. His eyes glanced up at the bright sun light and the light blue sky above him before the rumble moved underneath him and a small groan came from underneath him. He bent down and lifted up some of the remaining pieces from the broken school, letting out a small sigh of relief when he saw Maki and Himiko. Maki looked at the male before the let out a small sigh and lifted herself all of the ground, dusting off herself before helping Himiko up as well. Saihara grasped onto Maki’s as she helped Himiko up before going up with them and looked around at the demolished area. “So it looks like it’s over, huh?” She asked, sighing a bit as she moved some of her hair out of her face. 

“It seems like it...” Shuichi sighed, looking around as well. “I wonder why Kiibo decided to save us.”

“Dunno, maybe he changed his mind last minute.” Maki suggested, shrugging a bit. Shuchi let out a small hum and nodding in agreement, having some sort of a nostalgic feeling in him when he reminded himself that everything was all over. The killing game was over, they could go on and try to restart their lives, or so they thought. 

“Hey, who are they?” Himiko asked suddenly, turning around and looking at them, her finger pointing at the entrance. They turned around and looked to where she was pointing, all of them looking at 3 figures standing at the large entrance. One went up to them, dress in black with a clipboard. 

“Are you three the survivors of the killing game?” She asked, her voice stern and not showing emotion. Shuichi, Maki and Himiko all exchanged looks at each other before they all nodded in unison. The lady that approached them turned around and nodded to the other 2 people at the entrance before looking back at them. 

“Good. Follow me.” She said, turning around after she said that and started to walk out. They all looked at each other before Shuichi led followed them hesitantly.The people who were standing at the entrance followed them and put them into a black van, not saying anything about where they were going. Maki tried to ask them many times about where they were taking them, but they didn’t reply to her so she just gave up. The rest of the car ride to their unknown destination was silent, besides for Himiko’s quiet whispering and Maki’s impatient sighs. Shuichi looked at his 3 remaining classmates before looking out the window, looking at the buildings that flew past them. 

They soon arrived at a large building not too far away from the city. The woman stepped outside of the car and opened the doors before she went inside of the building. The other remaining people escorted them inside, still not saying anything. “Hey, what are we doing here?” Himiko asked, her voice sounding somewhat agitated. 

“You’ll see soon.” One of the people said, they’re voice low as if they were whispering. All three of them sighed at the same time at the vague answer. After leading them down a long hallway, someone stepped in front of the three and knocked at the door. They couldn’t hear much, but there were many voices from the other side of the door that echoed from underneath the door. The person in front of them turned around as the voices on the other side of the door, their body seeming tense. “Are you ready?” He asked, the voice still low like a whisper. They hesitated once again before they all nodded at different times. Shuichi felt his palms get sweaty and his heart beating furiously in his chest as he waited for the door to open. “Just don’t get too upset.” The man said before he turned around the door. From those words, he expected to see everyone who had died to be in the room, but he saw something completely different. 

In the room, there were a group of high school students around their age all in their respective high school uniforms, but there was a twist.Everyone in the room were the *exact* same people who they were in the killing game with, including themselves. Some people looked at them curiously and others looked at them like normal people. Shuichi, or so he thought, looked at the room full of people who were looked like all of his friends that he made, those who died and those who had lived. What the hell is happening?

The lady who went into the room before them saw their confusion, letting out a small sigh before looking at them. “Survivors.” She said before motioning to the group of the identical people in the room. “I would like you to meet the people you impersonated during your time in the killing game.” After that, everything in the room was silent. It felt as if everything that they had known, was just rubbed from them and they didn’t know anything. Shuichi took a deep breath and closed his eyes, memories from every event that happened in the killing game. Rantaro’s death and Kaede’s execution, everyone who had died and his night training sessions with Kaito and Maki. All the deaths and pain they’ve suffered in the killing game. He opened his eyes again, looking in the room of everyone in the room, his eyes locking his duplicate before looking at Kaede’s and then looked at his feet, not sure about what was real and what was fake. He didn’t know anything about himself anymore, or is it the same thing with the other Shuichi Saihara in the room. 

_Who... are they?_

Shuichi looked at the large crowd of students, who looked just like those who were in the killing game, and let out a shaky breath as he looked at everyone. His eyes met his own, or the real Shuichi Saihara, and then moved his eyes to look at Kaede before quickly looking down at the ground. He closed his eyes tightly as he tried to figure out all of this mess, but no matter how long or how he thought about it, nothing came up. He couldn’t think about anything that could explain... this mess. How would something like this happen? How did they do all of this without them knowing or even accomplishing this? He didn’t understand how this could happen...

Shuichi picked his head up to look at his friends that survived with him, looking up to see their reactions to the situation at hand. Maki looked pissed, her body practically shaking to hold herself back from lashing out. Her hands nearly white from how tight she balled her hands into fists and her veins were visible from her arms. Himiko, on the other hand, shows her anger in the complete opposite that Maki displayed hers. Her cheeks were a deep red, almost as red as her short bob, and her large magician hat was lower low in front of her face. And, although it was hard to see unless you looked at her long enough, her body was shaking a bit, but not as violently as Maki was. “What are you saying?” Maki asked, her voice course and cracking on every word. 

“Basically, everybody who appeared in the killing game is fake, on your end.” The woman in black said, shifting a bit. “Everyone who was in _your_ killing game is an imposter, and everyone was to look like the real people who wanted this to happen. The Future Foundation found it best to do this rather than the other the other method.”

“T-The Future Foundation!?” Shirogane, the real one, asked, looking as if she was about to cry. 

“Yup, The Future Foundation.” The woman replied again, nodding at the end of her sentence. The room then erupted in conversations, everyone being extremely confused about it now. Shuichi looked at everyone talking in a somewhat panic as he started to take deep breaths to calm himself down. The loud voices soon faded away after a while, just quiet as he thought to himself. What the hell what going on?? If they didn’t know about this, then how much do they actually know? He didn’t know what to think any more and observed the large crowd of confused students his age even more, seeing what they were going to do. 

Kaede eventually stood up and went up to Shuichi, her soft pads of her fingers brushing against his palm and then pulling on his sleeve as she went outside. He looked at her before swallowing his pride and following her out of room, closing the door behind him. He stood awkwardly across from her and looked at her as she tapped the front of her shoe in the ground. “Hi.” She said after a while, her face reddening from the awkwardness between the two. His body tended a bit when she spoke, her voice sounding just like he remembered, from the fake one at least... He then realized, which he didn’t realize this before, but Kaede, the real one, was wearing the her real uniform. A navy uniform with a sailor top with a red bow and a single white line across the color. It seemed familiar to him, but at the same time it didn’t. 

“H-Hi...” He said, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looked at his feet. 

“I’m sorry...” Kaede said, laughing a bit awkwardly, trying to get rid of the awkward atmosphere around them. “It’s kinda weird, talking to you now since... you know...” She said, looking down at her feet and moving a bit awkwardly. Shuichi felt his chest tense up, getting the small hint that she gave him. He didn’t really realize how awkward it would be for her until now... 

“Yea...” He replied, nodding in agreement as he shifted slightly. It was hard to look at her now, since she looked just like the one he knew, and the one that he knew died and now... 

“I’m sorry for all the confusion and everything. I would try to explain more about it but we barely know about it ourselves.” Kaede said, looking at him with a reassuring smile, swaying a bit. 

“No, you don’t really need to apologize about it...”

“Really? We are the reason that we got you guys in this mess.” She said, giving him a sympathetic look. 

“Really, it’s okay.” He said, forcing a smile and waving his hands. It was a bit quiet between them once again, before he cleared his throat. “So what things do you know about... this?”

“I honestly don’t know that much about the situation, I just really know that we had clones basically and they took things from there.” She explained, looking at him and moving a hair behind her hair. “That’s all we know from the stand point, but other than that I know a bit about the talents...” Kaede said, smiling a bit. She explained to him about how some of the talents they had made sense, from what the real people had. Kirumi worked at a local cafe, Korekiyo liked reading books about folktales, Kaito just _**really** _ admired space, Maki worked part time at her mother’s daycare, and wasn’t sure where the assassin part came in. Shirogane was in the otaku community, Iruma invented little things, in which some was pretty useless, Gonta liked to look for bugs, Himiko liked to do magic tricks, Angie was really good at art, Hoshi sometimes played Tennis with his uncle, and Tenko’s Dad taught her martial arts. The rest she wasn’t sure of how they got their talents. 

“So you didn’t choose get choose your talent?” Kaede shook her head. 

“They asked us what we were good at or what we liked or admired, what you saw what probably added in later.” She explained softly.

“So... did you choose the piano?” Shuichi asked the obvious, earning a small laugh from the other across from him. 

“Yup!” She said, smiling at him happily with a happy nod. “I’m not that good at it, but I like to play it.”

“Ah, I see..” Shuichi said, smiling at her as she nodded happily. It became quiet again, this time lasting for a bit before the door opened. Maki, the real one with her navy and black uniform, came from inside the room and looked at the two. 

“They said that they want you two back inside.” She said swiftly before going back inside of the room. Kaede nodded a bit and started to go back to the door where everyone was. Before she went inside, she put a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked at him. 

“Try not to blame anyone for what happened, we’re just as innocent as you guys are.” She said, smiling at him a bit before leaving him in the hallway. Shuichi stood there and thought about her words a bit before he turned around and went inside the room as well.


	2. Chapter 2

When Shuichi walked into the room, it was a bit less chaotic from what it was before he left. A small sigh left his lips as he went over to the table with the remaining survivors that he came out with. When he sat down, he realized that Maki still looked pissed off and Himiko looked like she had given up on everything. Another sigh left his lips as he looked up at the people dressed in black, in whom he thought came from the Future Foundation, who set all of this up anyways. “Okay, so I know that this is all confusing, but we promise that we’ll explain everything to everyone.” One of the males explained, speaking loudly so everyone in the room could hear him. 

“Why do I have the feeling that I shouldn’t believe you?” Kirumi sighed, the tips of her fingers hitting the table as she closed her eyes softly. 

“And why is that?” The woman asked, seeming oblivious to the lost trust. 

“Well, we just found out that the Future Foundation set all of this up and the fact when this all started you said that you weren’t going to hide anything from us...” Maki, the real one, replied, her head resting against the palm of her hand as she looked at them as if she were bored. “Plus we still don’t know your names so that helps.” She added sarcastically, some small snickers coming from one of the tables, which was probably Kokichi. 

“Do we even have a reason to trust you guys anymore?” Tenko asked with a sigh, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking at the group. Kiibo hummed while he nodded in agreement. The people from the Future Foundation let out a defeated sigh as they looked at each other and and looked for any ideas to persuade everyone. 

“Okay, we are aware that you guys may not trust us at the moment.” The woman said, raising her voice so everyone can be quiet. “But please trust us for the remainder of the time until this is all over. We will tell you everything over time and you will be able to know everything.” They then gave them their names, or what we wanted them to call them by, which were Takahashi, Ama, and Saotome. Although they gave everyone their names, it didn’t help anything at all at this long in time. 

“Okay, so now that that’s over with, we need to talk about housing,” Saotome said, the female, and looked at the large group of people before looking at the surivivors at their table. “Since you guys are the winners of the killing game and there’ll be a lot of communcation and a lot of fuss, so we have provided you housing. Team Danganronpa and the Future Foundation have teamed up and we have provide you with it as well as monthly checks that will come every month, starting once you get there. You may not tell anyone the address to prevent fans and other people from coming and you are allowed to stay there until the commotion dies down.” She explained.

Shuichi let out a sigh and closed his eyes for a second before looking back at the three people from the Future Foundation. He had a bad feeling in his gut that he shouldn’t trust them, but at this point he had no choice but to trust them. If they did turn down the offer, then where else will they have to go now, especially since everyone who had apparently seen the show are going to be all over them for who knows how long. So Shuichi nodded and agreed to it even though Maki kicked his shin with force and glared daggers at him for his decision without discussing it. He sighed once again with knowing that when they were alone she will do anything to make him change his mind.

Saotome then looked away from them and moved her attention to the vast crowd of teens. “And luckily for those who have died, there shouldn’t be that much commotion for you-“

“Actually, it’s gotten worse for me...” Tsumugi said a bit worriedly, raising her hand in the air a bit. “I’ve gotten more attention than before and it’s really a bothersome.” She added, a group of people nodding in agreement with her. Ama sighed and looked at his coworkers beside him s they can decide what to do with this sudden bump in the road.

“Is there anyone else?” Takahashi asked, raising his voice so everyone could hear him. And after that, a sea of hands rose up from them, around half of them were left okay. Kirumi, Tsumugi, Maki, Kaito, Ouma, Kaede, Hoshi and Kiibo were those who weren’t one of those lucky people, which apparently changed things for them.

“Okay, so the only thing that we can give you guys is to just try to not throw yourself out there as much.” Ama said, putting his hands up to motion everyone to put their hands down.

“But what about those of us who has jobs?” Maki asked, her voice sounding annoyed as she looked at the 3.

“Mhm, it’ll be hard for us to avoid people.” Kirumi added, her voice calm although she seemed irritated about everything. Takahashi let out another exhausted sigh and brushed his hair back as he looked down at the ground in defeat.

“Okay, we’ll do something about your guys’ problems.” He replied, looking up at everyone again.

“Just please don’t do anything that will make things more confusing...” Tsumugi added, her voice sounding worried again as she looked at him. The three of them sighed as they realized that no one had trusted them from this incident, but it was their consequence. It wasn’t hard to see that the more confusing things got, the less trust everyone had had for them, it was something that had to happen. Saotome got out her phone and looked at the time before she put it back and looked at the students again.

“Alright, were going to let you guys go for now since some people have things to do.” She said, earning a sigh of relief from everyone, besides the survivors that is. Saotome then turned from the 16 high school students to the 3 remaining survivors. “We need you 3 to come with us so we can take you to the home we have prepared and provided for you. You guys are all to be dismissed.”

Everyone in the room got up all at once and started to file out of the room in the hurry, those who had jobs or activities to do pushing and squeezing past them to get past. Shuichi was one of the last ones to leave, along with the other survivors and a few of the remaining students.

Before he went outside of the door, Kaede turned around and waved at him with a small smile before going her own way. For him, on the otherhand, he followed Ama, Takahashi, and Saotome back to their black car they came in. And just as they did before, they were all quiet and didn’t say anything to them. The car ride was just the exact same, but more tense and had the atmosphere of frustration.

Shuichi looked outside the window the entire time, finding it best not to converse to the others so they have their time to gather their thoughts. Outside of the car, building and people passed by as they drove past them along with everyone in streets. As they progressed through the city, more and more buildings started to appear as well as the amount of people. _If their location is supposed to be confidential, then why is there so many people?_ Shuichi thought as he looked outside at the amount of people. Soon enough, they were located outside of the city, where the population seem more reasonable than before. They arrived at a house, which looked pretty large for the amount of people living.

Ama got out first and opened the doors for them, in which Maki shoved past him and went straight for the door. Shuichi apologized to him before following her and Himiko out of the car and going to the front door. Takahashi went up to them and gave them each their own key and started to go back to the car. “We’ll check in tomorrow to see how things are.” Ama replied, waving at them softly. “See you until then.” And then after that sentence, they were in their way. Maki let out a sigh of relief before shoving the key into the key hole and pushing open the door with force.

Inside, it looked like a pretty reasonable house and it looked nicer then what Shuichi has seen before. It had a staircase in the very back and a large living room space with large couches and chairs with a TV on the very left side. The kitchen wasn’t too far away from the living room and, it too, was very spacious in size and it also looked really modern. The floors had wooden flooring that had a nice shade and the walls were a perfect milky white. Everything about it screamed welcome home to them, but of course _some_ things didn’t fit in. Near the entrance to the kitchen, picture frames that has their memories from the killing game was hanging up on the wall. Faces of their friends and loved ones were on there with happy smiles from everyone, when there was time to do that. But, this didn’t help but make Maki even more upset and Shuichi a bit more afraid of what she’ll say to him.

“Shuichi.” She said, not looking at him while she spoke. “Why did you have to speak?” 

“What do you mean?” He asked, putting his hands into fists as he awaited her response. She then whipped around and looked at looked at him angrily. 

“Don’t act like your innocent!” She yelled, her voice full of anger. “Why did you say something to them!?”

“Because I thought that it would be better for us to just say something rather than doing it ourselves.” He explained truthfully. His eyes glanced over at Himiko, who was watching them with sorrow, before looking back at Maki calmly. He couldn’t help but to think about the end of the 4th trial with him and Kaito, but this time it seemed more serious than that...

“So do you trust them or something?” Maki asked, irritation in her voice. 

“Of course not, but I think that just trusting them for this part is better than just saying no and being on our own. They know more than all of us so the fact that just saying no seems bad on our end.” He explained, earning another sigh from Maki. She opened her mouth to say something, but Himiko ended up speaking before she did. 

“I actually agree with Shuichi on this.” She said, giving the make a joyous wave on relief. “It seems better to just listen to them rather than to just... not listen to them and to do stuff ourselves.” Himiko explained, pulling her hat down a bit. Maki opened her mouth to say something else, but closed it and quickly turned around and walked away quickly. Shuichi watched her leave and wince a bit as she slammed the door behind her, letting out a sigh and going up the stairs with Himiko, each going to their own respective rooms.


	3. Chapter 3

It _wasn’t a very bright place, but soon it was replaced with a small sparkle in the distance. A galaxy that sparkled and flickered as it started to wave as if a breeze blew through or if it was floating on water. A loud click happened and a spotlight shone where the galaxy was waving, but it wasn’t that hard to know who it was even with the light on. _**It was him.** _ He turned around and a small smile grew on this face as his hand lifted up and waved at her before he turned around and started to walk away. It wasn’t long before her arm raided and her fingers became outstretched as she tried to reach out to him. But, it was too late when he started to walk away and a spaceship came down and- _

Maki woke up with her face wet with tears and sweat that was beaded on her forehead. She sat up and started to take deep breathes to calm herself down from her nightmare, looking at her hand as she watched the tears drop from her widened eyes and into the palm of her hand. She closed her eyes tightly and then placed her hands in front of her face to hide the tears that freely fell from her shut eyes and fell down her face. Oh just how much she missed him and also hated him for making her love him so. But it was bound to happen at some point one way or another...

She got up and threw back the covers that were on her body and went into the bathroom in the back corner of the room. Her wet hand the firmly grasped onto the handle to the sink and twisted to the side and lowered her face in the bowl, splashing her face with water that came out of the faucet. When she was done, she lifted her face to look in the mirror, a sigh coming out of her rosy lips as she looked at herself in disappointment. Her eyes were still red from crying earlier and her face was covered in water. Her long hair was extremely tangled from the top to the bottom and reminded her somewhat of a rats nest. Maki closed her eyes and opened a few drawers until she found a brush and stormed out of the bathroom.

Before sitting down on her bed, the flipped on the lights and realized that she wasn’t at the school still, but at the house that they were provided. Her chest tightened as she closed her eyes as she remembered all of the events of the day before plopping back down on her bed with a small sigh. “Why should the Future Foundation be apart of something like this?” She muttered angrily as she started to brush out the knots in her hair. She knew about some of the things that the Future Foundation did, which majority of the things that she did know about were things that were good for the community. But, why would they be associated with a Killing Game? Did they just have a change of heart and decide to put people into a killing game for their own entertainment? Maki sighed as she continued to brush her hair and think about whatever came to her mind.

After her hair looked less like a rats nest and looked more like it normally did, she put them into their normal ponytails and left her room. She peered out of her room and looked at the rooms besides hers, quietly stepping out and going down the stairs that led to the large living room downstairs. As soon as she got down to the bottom level, her eyes immediately met with the pictures from the killing game that was hung up on the wall. Her heart sunk as she was the pictures of her “classmates”, her body then starting to move on her own she angrily went into the kitchen.

She grabbed a chair as she brought it to the wall that displayed all the pictures, taking her time to take down each and every photograph. She wasn't sure how many pictures there were on the wall, but she did know that there was a lot, almost enough for her to make 3 trips to drop them off. When Maki had all of the pictures off of the wall, she gently placed them on the large table in neat stacks, one for each trip she made. Maki contemplated whether or not she should take the photographs out of their frames, but she decided to do that later when she actually felt like doing it. So instead of doing that, she decided to go into the kitchen. Her eyes squinted as the bright lights in the kitchen turned on, blinding her for a bit before they got used to the bright lights. She went up to the cabinets and opened them one by one to see if they contained the thing that she wanted. And eventually, in the hardest cabinet to reach, she found what she wanted: an unopened pack of coffee. 

 Maki couldn’t lie, she was a coffee person and she embraced that fact about herself. She enjoyed waking up and then having Kirumi’s coffee that she made during the killing game, but nothing happy lasts forever. She puffed out her cheeks as she let out a deep breath and tapped her fingers against the hard surface of the counter. Her eyes gazed to one of the large windows outside, noticing that it was still pitch black outside. “Why did I wake up at an ungodly hour...?” She asked herself quietly before she turned back to her cup that was now filled with a black substance with steam coming off of its surface. Maki picked it up and pulled back a chair with her foot before sitting down, enjoying the heat that touched her fingertips. 

She closed her eyes softly as she put the hot rim of the cup to her lips and enjoyed the silence around the house, until she heard a small click of a door opening that  is. A frown grew on her lips as her eyes opened to see who was coming down the stairs and disturbed her tiny moment of peace. Shuichi then came around the corner, looking at her somewhat curiously and tiredness, before looking at the now blank wall besides him. “You took down the pictures?” He asked, his voice cracking a bit before he cleared his throat. 

“Yea, they were bothering me.” Maki replied simply, looking at him as he walked into kitchen with his bare feet making small noises as he walked. His eyes then moved to look at the cup of coffee that she held in her hands curiously. 

“Did they fill up the cabinets too?”

”Yea, they filled them with cans and stuff.” Maki replied shortly before she placed the rim to her lips and took a small sip before looking at him. “Do you want some?” 

“Sure.” Shuichi said shortly, giving her a small nod. Maki placed her mug down on the table before she got up and went back to the coffee machine. And from there, it was an awkward silence between the two before Shuichi cleared his throat a bit. “It seems like they intended on us staying here for a while.”

”Really?” Maki asked, looking away from the cup that slowly filled and to the male at the table. 

“Yea, when I got to my room last night all the dressers and closets had clothing in them.” He explained, letting out a small at the end. “They filled them with different types of clothing and undergarments.”

”Do they fit?” Maki asked, looking back down at the cup to hide her somewhat red face from the last part of his statement. 

“Surprisingly yes.” He replied with a small sigh. “I’m wondering how they managed to get them like that...”

”They probably got the sizes and everything from the real ones.” Maki said softly, earning a small grunt of agreement behind her. 

“Probably...” Shuichi said softly, softly tapping on the top of the table. After a small moment of silence between them once again, Maki slammed her hand on the surface of table before turning around quickly and looking at Shuichi, who looked scared from the loud noise she made. 

“So this awkwardness doesn’t continue for all of eternity,” Maki said sarcastically, taking a deep breathe and tapping her fingers on the counter. “I’m sorry for what I did yesterday. I was in a really bad mood because everything was happening too quickly and I just snapped, please forgive me.”

”No, I understand and I forgive you.” Shuichi replied with a small smile. Maki gave him a small smile back before she grabbed his coffee cup and started to walk back. When she sat down and gave him his cup, she opened her mouth to say something, but decided to ask it when Himiko came down. 

“This is really good, Harukawa-San!” Shuichi said with a smile, looking at the other with a bit of fascination. 

“Thanks.” She said shortly before taking another drink. 

“Where did you learn how to make it like this?”

”Kirumi taught me when we were in the killing game together.” Maki replied, setting her mug down on the table and looked at him. He nodded a bit as he looked back down at his coffee before starting to drink it again. Himiko came down not too long later, rubbing her eyes softly she shuffled into the kitchen. 

“Is there anything that’s good for breakfast?” Himiko asked, looking at Shuichi curiously as he got up and opened up the cabinets. He looked around a bit before he shook his head and went back to the table. 

“There’s flour and sugar in there, nothing that’s easy to make.” He explained, earning an upset groan from Himiko as she put her head down in the table. “We might have to go to the store to get breakfast.”

”Plus it might be best to go now and get other stuff as well as deal with the check they gave us.” Maki added, earning a quiet nod from Shuichi. Himiko nodded a bit and shuffled back to the stairs, in Maki’s guess was getting ready to go to the store with Shuichi. 

“Do you mind if you stay here, Harukawa-San?” He asked, getting up from his seat and going towards the stairs as well, looking at her. 

“Sure, I can stay behind.” Maki replied, getting up to put her dirty mug into the perfectly clean sink. After that she went up to her room and immediately went into the bathroom. Her fingers dig into her hair and pulled out her ponytail holders, placing them on her wrists when her hair became completely loose. She turned to the side and looked at herself from there, brushing the long strands with her fingers. She then looked through the drawers to see if they had what she needed, and she did not find. But, didn’t the kitchen have-

“Harukawa-San! We’re leaving now!” Shuichi yelled, pulling her out of her thoughts. 

“Okay!” Maki yelled back, stepping out of the bathroom a bit. From there, she waited until she heard the front door open and close before she quickly went out and back to the kitchen. She went to the knifes and quickly grabbed the scissors before she went back to her bathroom and looked at the mirror. Maki took a deep breath as she turned to the side and put the blades to the side of her hair. It wasn’t even a second of having a second thought before her fingers opened the scissors and she started to cut through her hair. Once it was completely cut, she looked at herself again and frowned and decided that it still was a bit too long. So she took a deep breath and started to cut her hair once again until it was close to her shoulders. 

Maki looked at herself with short hair, seeming neutral about the whole thing. But there was nothing to do about it now since the deed was delt with. “At least they know who’s who.” She muttered to herself before looking at the hair covered floor and picked up all of the long pieces of hair that were once connected to her head. Once the floor was  _mostly_ clean, she let out a sigh and left the bathroom without a word. Then, she checked the closet and drawers to see if Shuichi was actually right about the clothes, and he was. So, she took off her red uniform shirt and her plaid skirt, shaking off all of the hair that fell on and in her clothes, and changed it. Maki ended up changing into a somewhat oversized grey sweatshirt and pajama shorts, making herself comfortable before turning off the lights in her room. 

She went down to the living room and sat down on the couch, where she pulled the pictures towards her and one by one she started to take them out. Maki decided that it would be best to do it with the frames upside down so she didn’t have to look at the pictures themselves, and it worked for her. She worked best when she was alone and worked in silence, it was just something she was always good at doing. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when the front door opened up and the sound of plastic bags entered the room. “H-Harukawa-San?”

”Hm?” Maki picked her head up to look at Shuichi and Himiko standing in the doorway with their eyes widened and mouths agape. 

“Y-You’re hair...” Himiko said, causing the taller girl to shrug and go back to what she was doing. 

“It was getting in the way of things and it was a bother taking care of it.” She explained. Maki stopped what she was doing and looked up at them. “It doesn’t look bad, does it?”

”N-No, it’s just a big change...” Shuichi said a bit awkwardly. Maki then looked away from them as the other 2 placed the stuff in their arms on the table. As the two started to cause a small commotion about making breakfast and all, a small smile grew on Maki’s lips as she looked at the backs of the empty frames. Maybe staying here wasn’t all too bad as she expected...


	4. Chapter 4

Kaede quickly walked down the long empty hallways, letting out a small sigh as she checked the time on her phone. She held in her breath as she looked down at the moving tiles as she started to run to the room she was supposed to go to. In a quick motion, she threw open the door and let out a small sigh of relief when she saw that she was one of the first ones there. Tsumugi, who was the only person there, looked up at the door and a smile grew on her face. “Hey Kaede.” 

“Hi Shirogane-San,” She said, starting to catch her breath a bit as she sat down next to her friend. “You’re here early.”

”Mhm, the moment school got out I ran all the way here.” She replied, laughing a bit with the other one. “You have no idea how mad I was when I got here and saw that they weren’t here yet.”

”I have an idea.” Kaede replied, talking from her own experience. She knew who the other was talking about, it was quite obvious who it was. The people from the Future Foundation was now literally apart of their lives, they were practically their puppets. They got messages about every hour to see how they were, how much homework or hoe busy they were, basically forcing themselves into their lives. They were all tired of it. Tenko tried to suggest that they just ignore all of the messages, but Kirumi and Maki learned the consequence the hard way. They both said that they appeared standing at the entrance to their jobs and waited for them until they said something. There was no way around it now...

And they weren’t the only problem, it was the actual fact that they’re targeted by people who have seen the actual killing game. Kaede had had many situations where fans will go up to her and ask for her picture or go up and ask how it feels to be dead. Tsumugi, as well as some other of the “blackened” had the worse end of it. Tsumugi got questions about how she thought of it all and how it feels to be the mastermind. Gonta gets questions about it feels to be tricked by Ouma and his tricks. Maki gets asked how it feels for her boyfriend to kill someone for her sake and Kirumi gets asked how it feels to kill someone to be prime minister again, which is on top of all the side comments she gets at her job. There was no way to dodge them, but some adapted, not too many though. Kaede gets asked, especially when hanging out with her friends that she met in here, if she still trusts them, and that’s just a stupid question itself. She knows all the confusion and sadness they all went through together, they need each other to lean on. 

Tsumugi let out a sigh and rested her head on the table. “Ah, when can all is this end...?” She asked tiredly and Kaede shrugged in response. 

“I don’t know, hopefully soon...” She replied, earning a hum from the girl besides her. 

“This is all too much and really confusing.” Tsumugi added, Kaede sighing and nodding in agreement. She opened her mouth to add something else but the door flew open and an upset Maki came in. Kaede waved at her softly as she stormed into the room and sat down next to them, putting her head on the table. 

“Looks like someone had a bad day.” Tsumugi said, resting her head on her hand and laughing a bit. 

“Mhm...” Maki hummed softly, moving her head up and down. “Most of it was because of the Stupid Future Foundation.”

”You too?” Kaede asked, earning another nod from Maki. 

“What did they do to you?” Tsumugi asked a small smile on her lips. 

“They tried to call me when I was in the middle of a test today.” Kaede explained, sighing a bit. “Then when I didn’t answer they came to my school and started questioning me in the school lobby.” She then looked over at the girl besides her whose head was in her arms on the table. “What did they do to you?”

“They called me at 1 in the morning to ask me questions and kept me up for about an hour until I went to sleep. Then they called my mom while she was at work, which made her pull me into a closet and scold me for things.” She explained, her voice monotone as she spoke. 

“That does suck...” Tsumugi said, earning a hum from Kaede and Maki. 

“Just the fact they randomly dumped this meeting on us is bad enough.” Kaede added, the others nodding in agreement. She couldn’t lie, the fact that they told everyone to be there at a certain time 20 minutes before they were supposed to be there made her pissed. Since her house was across town, she had to run all the way to the nearest bus stop and ride it all the way to where it was close. She could just only imagine how it was for those who got out of school early and had went to work or those whose school was all the way across town, and especially those who already went home and saw it. 

They all turned around, excluding Maki, and watched a group of people like into the room, all panting and out of breath. “Those shits aren’t even heat yet!?” Miu yelled angrily, slamming her bag down on a table and sat down. 

“I can’t believe that they did that...” Rantaro muttered, brushing his fingers through his hair and sitting down at a table as well. He then looked at the 3 girls who were there before the large group that came in. “How did you guys get here early?”

”We came in not that long ago.” Tsumugi said, shrugging a bit. 

“I just got here.” Maki said tiredly, her voice still a bit monotone. 

“I see...” He replied with a nod before turning away from them. 

“Did those fuckheads even say what they needed us here for?” Miu asked, leaning back in her chair and popping a sucker in her mouth. 

“Nope,” Maki said, finally picking her head up and looked at her. “They just told us to come here.” Miu let out an angered sigh as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. 

“Why are they doing this...?” She moaned as she put the legs of the chair back on the ground with a thud. 

“Maybe they’re trying to play us like they did with our copies?” Ouma asked as another group came into the room and joined in on the discussion. 

“Come on Ouma, don’t joke around about shit like that.” Kaito scolded as sat down next to Maki and looking back at the smaller person. 

“Agreed, you should not joke about that Kokichi.” Kirumi agreed, looking at him as well. As she passed the table, Kaede let out a deep sigh as the sweet smell of desserts, chocolate, and coffee followed her as she weaved through the tables. 

“Who said that I was joking...?” Kokichi asked, looking at everyone who had shown up in the room. “I mean, that’s what they did to them in the killing game. Why did we watch ourselves die if I were joking?” And the room went silent. 

Kaede looked down at her hands in her lap that were shaking violently as she was thrown back to when she saw...  _that._  She didn’t want to remember it again, she didn’t want to see it again nor feel her heart ripped into pieces. Tears started to well up in her eyes as her heart started pointing to get out and as her breathing hitched. She started to blink the tears away, but that was a mistake. Whenever her eyelids shut, she saw the giant piano with the spikes and the rope that moved “her” body back and forth as her dangling feet pressed the keys. Her neck felt tight as her finger tips started to grow numb. She picked her head up a bit and say that everyone who was same was exactly same as her. Looking down and avoiding everyone’s eyes, trembling, crying, everyone silent as they had to remember the deaths they witnessed and saw. The people who came in late looked at everyone awkwardly before going into their seats and looking around to see what happened. Kirumi was the one who broke the awkward and solemn silence, clearing her throat and standing up from her chair. “Even though that may be true,” she started, looking at him from across the room. “That is not something that you should bring up just yet and not to mention we have made a deal with them about the topic.” She explained, her voice calm and sophisticated as always. Ouma, who looked a bit surprised, looked at her before smiling a bit. 

“Yea, I guess your right about that Tojo-San.” He said before snickering a bit. “How could I forget about the deal?” He asked himself as she atmosphere in the room grew less tense and more relaxed. 

“Goodness, don’t act like-“ Tenko started, but was interrupted by Ouma, as usual. 

“Weeeell...” He drew out, swaying from side to side. “Now that that’s over, I have something to ask you Tojo-San!” He said excitedly. 

“What do you have to ask?” Kirumi asked curiously, gently placing her hands in her lap.  

“You work in a cafe, don’t you?” He asked mischievously, earning a nod from her.

”Why do I already know what he’s going to ask?” Kaede whispered to Tsumugi, earning a small giggle from her as they looked at each other.  

 “Well since you work at a cafe with food and stuff, why don’t you bring some food here? It’ll be a huge help to everyone.” He said, laughing his signature laugh after it. Kirumi sighed, probably of the amount of stress he dumped onto her. 

“If its what you want, then I shall accomplish it.” She said with a small nod. Tsumugi then hurriedly turned around to look at her. 

“Y-You don’t have to do that!! He’s just joking around!” She said hurriedly, worry in her voice as the other shook her head. 

“I do not mind.” She said calmly. “If it benefits the people gathered here then I shall do it.”

”But don’t do it! It’s just a waste of time and worry about yourself before us!” Tsumugi yelled once again. Kirumi opened her mouth once more, but the door had swung open and Saotome, Ama, and Takahashi all walked in with 3 other people behind him. 

“Look who it is...” Kaito muttered under his breath as he watched them walk in. 

“I apologize that we are late, we had some work to do before hand.” Saotome apologized as she weaved through all of the tables to get to the front with everyone else behind them. 

“But don’t you guys always say that?” Himiko asked, her head laying down on the table as her eyes watched them. 

“But we had  _actual_ work to do this time.” Ama said, crossing his arms in front of his chest as everyone who were with them came to the front. 

“So you guys are just fucking slacking off everyday!?” Miu yelled, expressing everyone’s thoughts in the room. 

“And what is the meaning of calling this meeting without no warning?” Hoshi asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. 

“We apologize for that.” Ama apologized swiftly. “The servers in the office shut off so-”

“Just like you work every day and don’t slack off while we’re waitig to hear from you.” Maki replied, looking unimpressed at them while she raised a single eyebrow. The three of them sighed and looked at each other before looking at the people that they brought in with them. 

“And where’s everyone else?” Kaede asked, her voice concerned. “Didn’t you say that every meeting that we had they would be here with us?”

”Yes, I am aware that we said that.” Takahashi said, tapping his foot on the ground before looking up at everyone. “But this is a special case, it’ll be best for them if they weren’t here.”

”Why is that? Tenko asked, leaning back in her chair as she looked at them with an annoyed expression. 

“You said specifically to us that everything you tell us you will tell them and vise versa.” Kiibo interjected, earning a small nod or grunt of approval in everyone in the room. 

“We are aware of that.” Saotome said sternly. “But this is a serious matter and it’ll be best for them not to hear this now. We will tell them later once everything about the killing game settles down.” Everyone who was from the Future Foundation who was with them nodded in agreement. She then walked past Ama and Takahashi and pointed at the 3 other people with them. “These are people who will help explain some things to you that you don’t fully understand. It won’t take long. These people here are Kyousuke Munakata, Makoto Naegi, and Kyoko Kirigiri, they are all members of the Future Foundation.” She explained. 

“Isn’t 2 of them from the original killing game?” Kaede asked Tsumugi, shaking her arm despretely to get her attention. 

“Yea, I believe so...” She replied, worry in her voice as she looked at them. 

“We’ll only explain this once, so listen closely and you may _not_ tell anyone, no matter who it is, this information.” Kyousuke said sternly as Kyoko turned around and started to write on the board with a dry erase marker. And in that second, the atmosphere dropped a lot, the room turning solemn and dark. And from that point on, the members of the Future Foundation explained one of the major secrets behind the 53rd killing game. 


End file.
